


Love and Murder in Verona

by fiftysevenacademics (rapiddescent)



Category: Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Family Drama, First Kiss, First Love, Forbidden Love, Kissing, Modern Retelling, Teen Romance, Teenagers, The Course of True Love (and First Dates)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3180233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rapiddescent/pseuds/fiftysevenacademics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The death of a mutual friend brings Romeo and Juliet together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love and Murder in Verona

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Tumblr Shakespeare Advent Event Day 24 Prompt: Christmas Eve. This is a sequel to [Up in a Blaze of Glory](http://fiftysevenacademics.tumblr.com/post/105061734005/up-in-a-blaze-of-glory))

The party went almost as Juliet had hoped. Mercutio brought Romeo with him. She saw him from across a crowded room as they walked in the door, and their eyes met when she waved to Mercutio. But they stopped to talk to someone else Mercutio knew, and before she had a chance to speak to them, her father recognized Romeo and threw him out.

She smiled and behaved like a dutiful daughter, responding politely to questions from her parents’ friends about where she wanted to go to college and if she was going to try out for track with their daughters this year and smiling till her cheeks hurt, then sneaked up to her room and turned out the light. She could see the faint outline of the Montague’s Christmas lights from her window and the sight filled her with a mixture of excitement and grief. 

"My parents shouldn’t have thrown my friends out of the party. They’re my friends, not theirs.”

She was sullen the next day, and argued several times with her parents. Two days before Christmas, a picture of Mercutio appeared in her Facebook newsfeed with the caption, “RIP Mercutio”. Her heart stopped. What? What happened?

Soon it was all over her newsfeed, her Tumblr dash, her Instagram. It was all anyone could talk about. Gorgeous, funny, outgoing Mercutio had been killed on the way home from a party and no one knew who did it. Some kids had organized a memorial for him at the beach where he surfed. They were going to swap stories and remember their friend around a bonfire. Juliet’s parents said she could go.

They’ve been on the beach since noon, swimming, laughing, surfing, playing Frisbee. There's a few sneaked bottles of vodka, and some of her friends are acting very loopy, but Juliet doesn’t drink. A couple more kids arrive around dusk, just as people are starting to build the bonfire. She sees him in silhouette only at first, but knows immediately it is Romeo. She stands on the edge of the group and is the first he approaches because most of the people don’t go to his school and she is the only familiar face.

"Hi," he says awkwardly.

"Hi," she murmurs back.

"I’m Romeo. I saw you at your parents’ Christmas party, but didn’t get a chance to meet you."

"I remember. You came with Mercutio." She looks at the sand so he won’t see her pink cheeks, or guess that her heart leaps to think he noticed, and remembers her. "My name’s Juliet."

"I know. I couldn’t forget that."

"It’s horrible about Mercutio. Do you think they’ll ever catch who did it?"

Romeo does not reply.

"Oh no, what did I say? Did I ruin everything?" she thinks, and quickly adds, "I mean, it was such a terrible accident. He didn’t deserve it."

"No, he didn’t. But to answer your question, I was there and saw who did it."

She turns a shocked face toward him.

"Why didn’t you tell the police?"

"It was this guy, Tybalt, who saw us at your party and followed us out to the car. He said he’s your cousin and if he ever saw us around again, he’d kill us."

Tybalt! Her distant cousin who somehow always ends up at family events because he’s at college near them and all his other family live on the East Coast. She barely knows him, and doesn’t like what she sees because he’s got a bad temper and takes the whole Capulets vs Montagues thing way too seriously.

"Oh, god, Romeo, I’m so sorry!"

"We ran into him when we crashed a frat party a few days later. He picked a fight. Mercutio fell and hit his head on the first punch, and that’s what killed him. Tybalt ran away. I didn’t chase him because I was trying to help Mercutio."

"Why didn’t you tell the police?" she repeats.

"He’s your cousin. "

"So?"

Now it’s his turn to blush furiously. Juliet notices, with a rush of excitement and embarrassment. He doesn’t want to hurt her. He doesn’t want to screw up his chances with her by turning in her cousin. He was thinking of her even then.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don’t know. Don’t tell anyone I told you."

They sit together near the fire, joining in on songs and stories. When it is time to leave, he offers her a ride home, but she is supposed to go with her friends, and doesn’t want her parents to find out she accepted a ride from a boy she just met, or, worse, to find out that that boy was Romeo Montague.

Christmas Eve comes two days later. Her parents have made a lavish feast for her grandparents, her aunts and uncles and cousins.

"Juliet, what’s wrong? You’re so distant tonight," her mother asks while they’re serving dessert.

"It’s nothing, mom. I’m just tired," she lies. She has not been able to think of anything but Romeo, and Mercutio, and Tybalt. Her heart aches in so many places, she doesn’t know where to find them all.

Her phone buzzes while they’re playing Scrabble after dinner. She sees who the text is from and quickly finds an excuse to leave the game. She locks herself in the bathroom to read the message. She rejoins the game a few minutes later, flushed and voluble, bouncing through the game until finally the guests leave and everyone goes to bed.

She lies in the dark, fully clothed for a couple of hours, until she is sure her parents are sound asleep, then slips down the stairs barefoot, putting her shoes on only after she’s gotten outside. She walks down the street to a small park, where a dark figure sits on a swing.

"Juliet!" the figure calls, and she runs toward it. Romeo takes her in his arms, and they kiss, tentatively at first, then, as the moonlight swells around them, in great, eager bursts that feel like they will never end.


End file.
